Absorbent articles, such as diapers and pants, typically comprise an acquisition system which is provided between the absorbent core and the topsheet. Often, air-through bonded nonwovens or carded resin bonded nonwovens are used as material for such acquisition systems, However, air-through bonded nonwovens often lack sufficient recovery in caliper after they have undergone compression applied on the nonwoven during manufacturing and during storage of the material in roll-form or, if the material is incorporated into an absorbent article, during storage of the absorbent articles in packaging (where the articles are typically considerably compressed) or during use of the absorbent article exerted by the wearer. Carded nonwovens which are consolidated by use of a binder sometimes do not provide the desired degree of void volume and are therefore used in combination with additional layers of the acquisition system, such as a layer of intra-fiber cross-linked cellulose fibers.
Therefore, there is a need for improved nonwoven materials which overcome the drawback described above.